I was lucky enough to be able to visit the Lakes distillery recently where I was able to spend some time looking round the distillery and taking the tour,  later I spent a couple of hours chatting to distillery manager John Drake… At one point it felt like a western scene as he very kindly sent a sample of new make spirit sliding along the table top in order for me to do a small review and give my ever so humble views.. This sample was taken on the 3rd of March 2016,  and has an abv of 63.4%..

Nose .. upon first impression the nose is clean and fresh with fruity aromas and some nice subtle floral notes before giving way to a malty scent.

Palate…  Very easy to drink with a creamy texture, fresh fruit and that malty note.

Finish… Long lasting with a  clean malty note.

Thoughts… As any one knows that has the pleasure of tasting new make there is not masses of flavour,  you generally get heavy notes or subte light flavours,  this new make is lovely and light, and suprised me at just how much flavour it was packing,  now I would think that if this new make has so much character then hopefully the future malt releases could be very good indeed.  Now having seen the different samples taken by John,  3 samples he showed me taken in stages from one barrel showed lots of colour and promise, there certainly is some magic taking place in those barrels, as he explained just what he was seeing and tasting from the short time this new make had spent in the array of different wood it was easy to understand why he and many others have such high hopes.   It will not be long before the first samples of spirit go out to those who signed up for the founders club,  I am very sure you will be extremely pleased with what you get…